Sunday, February 14, 2010

A Valentines Day Crash - my first attempt at riding with a trailer in tow

Today was my first attempt at riding my bike with a trailer in tow.
All went well for about a mile and a half. As I rode, I started hearing a ticking noise that slowly grew louder. It sounded like something was hitting my spoke. Afraid something would get caught in my wheel I looked back to see if I could find the source of the noise. Suddenly, I realized I had been looking back too long and was now veering off to the right towards the curb. As I turned my head back to the front I saw the curb coming way too quickly. I couldn't stop. Luckily the bush I flew in to was really soft and suffered no damage to my body beyond a slightly skinned knee and a hole in my tights. I quickly got back up and examined my bike. Everything seemed good but I couldn't figure out what was making the noise so I continued on.
About half a mile later while riding through an intersection my rear wheel locked up! Apparently the hitch of the trailer twisted and the bolt that tightened the hitch down got caught in my spokes.

My wheel was so thrown off by this it can't freely turn without the rear break unhooked and opened up.
Looks like I won't be riding for at least a few days.

3 comments:

  1. We always turn the bike in the direction we look. You would think that at my age I would stop instead of looking back but nooo. When will I ever learn.
    I would darn those tights and wear them as a badge.

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  2. Hope you get your bike mended soon hope your tights and sore knee get better soon

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